Andy Murray, who reached the 2016 final, had a hard time explaining his play against 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka on Sunday at Roland Garros.
“I will need to think long and hard and try to understand what happened,” said Murray, after losing to Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 in 87 minutes in the first round.
“It’s not for me the kind of match that I would have ignored aside and not overthinked. There are clearly reasons behind this kind of performance. I think this is probably in terms of the outcome, I might be wrong, but I think this is possibly the worst defeat of my career. In a Grand Slam tournament.
“I’m not sure if this is the case. So I have to analyze it seriously and try to understand why the performance was like that. I don’t feel the circumstances are an excuse for that. I don’t feel that this is a good reason, maybe not to enjoy matches much when it comes down to it.” Also, but not in terms of that should not affect your performance in any way. So I will need to think long and hard and try to understand what happened. “
Former world number one Murray, who underwent two right thigh surgeries in January 2018 and 2019, was competing in his first clay court match since reaching the 2017 Roland Garros semi-finals, where he lost to Wawrinka in five sets.
“The draw was obviously very difficult,” Murray said. “Even if I play very well, that is not a guarantee that I will [would] Win that match. But I also didn’t play well. It served like under 40 percent of the first serve in court, and it’s not really good enough against anyone, especially someone as good as Stan. You want to serve at 60% [range].
“I did not serve this way [before]. This clearly has nothing to do with my hips in terms of movement. I was assuming I was moving a little better before I had a metal hip. It might be fair to assume. But like poor timing of returns and service at 38 percent, this has nothing to do with that. This is something I will need to look at with my team and find out why I missed them, as I missed them. “
The 33-year-old Scottish player is now 3-3 since the ATP tour returned after a five-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, he beat world number 7 Alexander Zverev Western and Southern Open The second round.
“From a physical perspective, I don’t physically expect to be the same as I was before the procedure,” Murray said. “But in terms of hitting the ball like punches and in terms of punches and things … there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do that from a technical perspective. There have been games I’ve played since I got back where I hit the ball well.
“I know it wasn’t the best match sometimes, but Zverev was two points away from winning the US Open, and I won against him the week before. It would be hard for me to play the same level as I did before. I’m 33 years old now.” And she got the first place [in the FedEx ATP Rankings], So it’s hard with all the problems that I have. But I will continue. Let’s see what the next few months bear, and I think I will not play a game like this from now until the end of the year. “
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